(Dortmund / Germany) – RWE Gas Storage West GmbH is beginning to market hydrogen storage capacity in the salt cavern storage facility in Gronau-Epe (North Rhine-Westphalia). Construction of the facility is currently underway, and it is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2026.
RWE plans to store hydrogen in salt caverns previously used for natural gas in Gronau-Epe. The first hydrogen is scheduled to be fed into the grid in 2026. © RWE
Following commissioning, planned for July 2027, an injection and withdrawal capacity of 50.000 cubic meters per hour each, with a working gas volume of approximately 38 million cubic meters, will be commercially usable. Around 2 percent of this capacity in the "Epe H30" hydrogen storage facility is currently unbooked. The remaining capacity, consisting of 2 million cubic meters of working gas volume and 11,4 cubic meters of injection and withdrawal capacity, will now be offered as part of a tender process beginning this week and running until July 15.000. RWE Gas Storage West is marketing the capacity in the form of three identical "storage bundles," which will be available from January 2028.
RWE Generation will store green hydrogen from Lingen in Gronau-Epe and deliver it via the hydrogen core network. © RWE AG
RWE Generation SE, a subsidiary of the group, has already booked some of the hydrogen quotas. The anchor customer is Total Energies SE. The oil company signed a 14-year offtake agreement with RWE in March for green hydrogen. The energy carrier is produced by RWE's electrolysis plant in Lingen, northern Germany, and will be stored in Gronau-Epe before being delivered via pipeline to the Total refinery in Leuna through the future hydrogen core network.
The storage facility is being built as part of the Get H2 consortium of companies, municipalities, and institutions. The initiative plans to build pipeline networks, infrastructure, and megawatt-scale electrolysis plants to promote hydrogen applications in refineries, the steel industry, and heavy-duty transport. Filling is scheduled to begin in 2026.
The tender conditions are published on the RWE Gas Storage West website .
Photo above
RWE Gas Storage West GmbH is launching the marketing of available capacity at the hydrogen storage facility currently under construction in Gronau-Epe. © RWE AG
